In Ward et. al.’s piece, “Uncommonly good: Exploring how mass media may be a positive influence on young women’s sexual health and development” Ward includes a wish list of ten changes that mainstream media
could make in order to be more beneficial for girls’ sexual health and
development. A brief version of this wish list can be seen below.
1. More three-dimensional characters.
2. A broader range of physical appearance types and less
focus on this as the
center of women’s worth.
3. A diminished heteronormative perspective.
4. An acknowledgment of gender roles and their constraints
on sexuality.
5. More portrayals of “outercourse.”
6. More agentic portrayals of female sexuality.
7. Portrayals of parents and older adults working to
instill sexual agency and
sexual self-acceptance within their daughters.
8. Women communicating with their partners about sex.
9. Portrayals of the ambiguities and negotiations that are
involved in navigating
sexual relationships.
10. A focus on sexuality not just as a risk for women but
also as a site of pleasure (Ward et. al., 2006).
At the time that this article was
written (2006) the media that these women had been studying date from the late
90s/Early 2000s. The mainstream media during this time had a much narrower
variety of female characters and sexual experiences portrayed. With the surge
of new technological capabilities like Netflix and Hulu, the television
industry has skyrocketed in the past few years creating a demand for the
creation of more television series and a wider variety of different types of
television series. That being said, more people, and in particular more
children and adolescents, are watching television today than ever before and
therefore the pervasiveness of television portrayals of women and sexual
experience may have an even bigger impact on the adolescents of today than in
my own generation. That being said, while TV is much more popular today, there
is a wider variety of genres to choose from, the storylines have gotten more
complex, and the expectations for characters to be layered and interesting has
increased. While the media still has a
lot of work to do in terms of female and sexual experience portrayal, I think
that the increase in demand for more/ a wider variety of television shows has
actually served to help fulfill this wish list. Below are a few characters that
I think serve this purpose and break away from stereotypical portrayals of
women and sexual experience that have been previously prevalent in popular mainstream media, giving women a wider
range of portrayals to look up to and connect with.
Piper
Chapman the main character of OITNB is not your typical “white-middle class-
woman” character. While she is physically small, blonde, and thin, there is a
lot more to Piper Chapman’s portrayal than her physical appearance. Even though
the show does portray her as being beautiful there is a much larger focus on
Piper’s intellect, toughness, ability to stand up for herself, and her
exploration of her sexuality as she navigates the experience of being in jail
with a past lover (a female ex-drug dealer). Piper has to choose between her
current finance, a nice, stable, writer from New York, and her passion for
Alex, her old lover. The show gives a lot of color to bisexuality and sexual
exploration. Furthermore, OITNB also places a large emphasis on the pleasure of
oral sex, something that was not seen in a lot of media during the time of Ward
et. al.’s article and fulfills the goal of seeing more “outercourse” in the
media (Ward et. al., 2006). The portrayal of Piper as a multidimensional character who
is resourceful, tough, sensible, and sexually curious is a great example of the variety of female and sexual portrayals in the
media today vs. during Ward’s study, and how these portrayals are working
towards fulfilling the wish list given.
Mindy Kayling - The Mindy Project
Mindy Kayling, the star of The Mindy Project is also a wonderful example of the new kind of character
portrayal / television shows that works to help fulfill the wish list given by
Ward et. al. that are being seen in the mainstream media today. Mindy is not your average female portrayal in the physical sense, as
she is of Indian decent, and is larger in stature. She also works as a
gynecologist, a job that showcases both her smarts and sexual knowledge and
experience. In the show Mindy also dates a male gynecologist which works to
break the stereotype that many male gyno’s are gay. The man she dates (Dan) is
also white, which serves as a representation of interracial relationships. The
show is entirely about Mindy navigating the many facets of her life from her
race, to her sexual desires, to her relationship, career, and friendships. The
show’s plot as well as the portrayal of Mindy as a relatable character is one
of the many reasons that the show is so popular. It resonates with many women
dealing with these same things, providing them information about how to maneuver
these facets of life as well, breaking stereotypes and providing women with a
relatable and unconventional figure in the media to bond with (Ward et. al., 2006).
Tammy Taylor - Friday Night Lights
Tammy Taylor on Friday
Night Lights also is another example of the wide variety of different female
portrayals we are seeing on TV today. Tammy is the mother of Julie Taylor, and
the wife of Eric Taylor the town football coach. While Tammy is portrayed as a
“mother figure” throughout the show, there is a major focus on Tammy’s ability
to give strong advice, to be morally sound, and to maintain a healthy
relationship with her husband. Tammy is also the guidance counselor at the school and later becomes the principle (surpassing her husband in career hierarchy).
The show portrays Tammy as a partner and equal with her husband Eric. He supports
her career path as she does for him, serving as an example of equality and
respect in a relationship. Tammy is also very open with her daughter and her
students about sexuality and sexual health. There is an entire episode devoted
to Tammy and Julie discussing the loss of Julie’s virginity and the necessity
of her being safe sexually. Furthermore, in the fourth season of FNL Tammy works with a girl who is
pregnant named Becky. Tammy directs her toward literature for both adoption and
abortion, one of the only times I have seen both options actually be discussed
in depth on television. The character of Tammy Taylor serves to show autonomy
for women, discussion of sexual health and healthy relationship with parental
figures, as well as a flip in gender roles that shows that if a woman is in a
higher paying job than the man the relationship can still be happy and healthy, all wishes given on Ward et. al's list (Ward et. al., 2006).
To conclude, I find that these three characters to be three
of many that are being seen on popular television today that are working toward
reaching the goals of Ward et. al.’s wish list for the portrayals of female and sexual health and experience in
mainstream media. I truly believe that in today’s world that the variety and numerical value of
multidimensional, non-heteronormative, sexually autonomous and educated
portrayals of females in the media is increasing, giving females more types of characters to connect with and use as a reference to learn about and sextual and relational health and development.
References
Ward, L. M., Day, K. M.,& Epstein, M. (2006). Uncommonly good: Exploring how mass media maybe a positive influence on young women's sexual health and development. New Directions for Child & Adolescent Development, 2006(112). 57-°©‐70. doi: 10.1002/cd.162
I really liked this blog post, Sam, and thought it provided a lot of great character representations on television that fulfill Ward's wish today. I also thought of "The Mindy Project" and Mindy Kaling in particular when reading Ward's article because her show really does meet a lot of the wish's on Ward's list. While I do think Mindy acts as an example of a "broader range of physical appearances" and how appearance should not be central to a woman's worth on television, I remembered an interview Mindy did with Jimmy Kimmel where she discussed how she doesn't like being considered "the pioneer" for "normal" and "chubby" women on television because it really is a back-handed compliment. Here's the link to the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9nAJ1xNLms#t=22
ReplyDeleteMindy talks about how people often view her as someone who is "refreshing" because she is chubby and doesn't subscribe to the thin ideal. But what she said is that she does subscribe to that ideal, she works out, she eats well, but she just is normal compared to every other actor on television. While this is the point of your post, it also adds another layer to the problem of body image and physical appearance on television. The fact that many fans of Mindy Kaling applaud her for "sitting on her couch," and for being "chubby" reveals that many of her fans don't see her as healthy and normal. They view her as a great and different role model, which is great. But they do not view her as someone who actively tries to be healthy and thin, which is what she tries to do.
I think this shows that while we have made a lot of progress in regard to showing varied body types on television, how viewers interpret this variance could still be problematic.